X-Men #1 (Sep 63): X-Men
Creative Team: written by Stan Lee; drawn by Jack Kirby; inked by Paul Reinman; lettered by S. Rosen
Starting Line Up: Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast
Synopsis: The X-Men are already formed as the issue starts, but untested. Jean Grey joins the school and the team as Marvel Girl. She is only a telekinetic at this point. Xavier explains to her what mutants are and their purpose is to stop evil mutants. Xavier's father worked on the A-bomb experiments and the radiation affected his genes. Magneto takes over a missle base to show the strength of mutants. The X-Men stop him.
Yeah, but is it good? It's really hard to judge Silver Age (60s) comics. They're all pretty nutty by today's standards. And this little title didn't have Stan Lee's attention like his pet projects Spider-Man and Fantastic Four had. But even those stories suffered from irrational motivations for the sake of a plot setup. Why is Magneto attacking the base? That doesn't matter. What matters is the X-Men fight him. Magneto is not the great villain he would become. Here he's just a generic raving villain. The team itself hasn't developped their personalities except for Iceman being the annoying kid. So it's pretty forgettable stuff except for the fact that it's X-Men #1.
Significata: First appearance of the X-Men (Xavier, Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast, and Marvel Girl). First appearance of Magneto. Comic sold for 12 cents. 40 years of history begins.
